Roger Lovette writes about cultural concerns, healthy faith and matters of the heart.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Station Three: Jesus Falls

I am unsure why they finally settled on 14 Stations of the Cross. But processions were formed, the faithful
moved from image to image. Through primitive pictures and glorious carvings and
etchings--they told the story from Pilate’s court all the way to dark Saturday.
At each station prayers were said, hymns were often sung; periods of silence
were almost always observed. The Stations, which speak of the Passion of our
Lord, are at the heart of the Christian story.*

Only one event in this sad journey is repeated. Not once—but
three times. In Station 3 Jesus falls for the first time. I wonder if the
church kept this scene and repeated its sadness three times to remind us that
he really was a man of sorrows and acquainted with our grief.

Old-time Baptist loved to preach on once-saved-always-saved.
The heresy worked its way out by saying once you “decided to follow Jesus” you
were kept secure and safe. It didn’t matter what you did—beat your wife, abuse
your children—be mean as hell—you had been saved and when the dust settled you
were safe in the arms of Jesus. We pious Baptists loved to smack our lips and
say: “The Methodists believe in falling from grace.” We Baptists didn’t believe
this heresy—we just practiced it.

All this background hopefully leads us to the Third Station.
Jesus fell underneath the load. If he had only been a specter or simply
masquerading as a man—he would have never fallen. What kind of a God falls down
and can’t get up? But some part of the
church read the story clear. Jesus fell. Just as Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel
and old naked drunk Noah fell off the wagon. The whole book is a record of our
fallings. David hot in pursuit of Bathsheba. Solomon with so many paramours he
lost his kingdom. Israel in exile. Amos and Jeremiah and all the prophets railing
against a people who fell far away from what they said they believed. Simon Peter
lying through his teeth. Not to speak of Judas. One of the saddest sentences in
the Gospels is: “They all forsook him and fled.”

So here our Lord is one with us. Who among us has not fallen
from grace more than three times? The load gets too heavy. Too much too fast
crashes in on us. Death of a loved one. Illness that eats away at our lives and
often our bank accounts. The dreaded Alzheimer’s. Suicide. Not to speak of the
moral failures or the ethical wrongs. We fall, oh yes we fall.

And so we need to stand at this Third Station and ponder the
mystery. Jesus fell under the load. Here he is as human as he will be on the
cross where the pain was real and the blood was red and he cursed loud and
clear. And so standing by this Station perhaps we can see him understand our
failings and our wrong-headedness. We do fall as did our Savior but that is not
the end of the story. Station three—we have barely started the long journey.

Elizabeth Eliot said once that the trouble with living sacrifices
is that they keep crawling off the altar. We know that. And so we stand here
and whisper a prayer as did another who had fell so far: “Lord, remember
me...remember me.” The book says he will. Thank God for that.

*This idea came from a very fine book by Daniel Berrigan and Margaret Parker, Stations ( Harper & Row, 1989, p. ix)

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About Me

Minister-writer who cares about the world and all God's children. I've Pastored six churches--served as Interim Pastor for seven other churches since my supposed retirement.I have written five books and a multitude of articles.